Early Attachment to Mothers and Fathers: Contributions to Preschoolers' Emotional Regulation

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Carla Fernandes¹  Marilia Fernandes¹  António J. Santos¹  Marta Antunes¹  Lígia Monteiro²  Brian E. Vaughn³  Manuela Verissimo¹ 

[1] William James Center for Research, ISPA—Instituto Universitário;Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL);Human Development and Family Science, Auburn University, United States

关键词: emotion regulation;    attachment relationships;    mother and father;    peer group;    preschool;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.660866

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Children acquire and develop emotional regulatory skills in the context of parent-child attachment relationships, nonetheless empirical studies have focused mainly on mother and less information is available regarding the role of both parent-child attachment relationships. Furthermore, despite its importance, there is no information regarding preschool years. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the potential influences of both mother-child and father-child attachments on preschooler's later emotion regulation observed in the peer group. Fifty-three Portuguese nuclear families (mother, father and focal child) participated in the study; 47% of the children were boys and 53% were girls. Attachment Security was assessed at home using the Attachment Behavior Q-set when children were 3 years of age, and emotion regulation was observed in the preschool classrooms attended by the children at age 5, using the California child Q-sort to derive an Emotion Regulation Q-Scale. Results showed that the combined influence of both parent-child attachment security predicted better emotion regulation results, than did the specific contributions of each parent per se . Findings are consistent with integrative approaches that highlight the value of including both mother- and father-child attachment relationships, as well as their combined effect, when studying emotion regulation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY